Police Officers Caught Posing, Trying to Climb Border Wall Prototype

Law enforcement officials were captured on video posing for photographs and pretending to scale a border wall prototype on Tuesday. Many called the display insensitive, given the seriousness of the immigration debate.

The footage shows three officers, who appear to be wearing San Diego Police Department uniforms, modeling in front of the prototype at Otay Mesa Port of Entry. While one officer holds a camera, the two others pose as if they are helping each other climb the wall, with one officer raising his foot and the other posing as if he's giving his friend a boost.

The moment was captured on video by Jaciel Ortega, a student at Scripps College in Claremont, California, just after President Donald Trump visited the site. The student told Telemundo 20 the incident happened at about 2:45 p.m., and that the officers noticed her but didn't appear to care.

"On a day so full of protest and pain this is what the San Diego Police Department was doing," Jaciel wrote in an Instagram post. "These are the officers that are on the streets terrorizing communities of color. Seeing this was nothing new but it was a reminder to broaden how we talk about immigration policy, especially in California."

The San Diego Police Department did not immediately return Newsweek's request for comment. The department told KNSD that they had just been made aware of the incident and were looking into it.

At time of publishing, the student's post had a couple hundred comments. As many might have guessed, the remarks are as divisive as the subject matter itself. Some wrote that she was being too sensitive, while others argued that the officers actions showed an extreme lack of sympathy.

The border wall was a centerpiece of Trump's unusual presidential campaign, and it has since become an emblem of a rancorous immigration debate that he so ardently fostered. During Trump's visit to California – a state whose lawmakers have called it "ground zero" of The Resistence – the president took a swipe at his detractors, telling onlookers that Governor Jerry Brown had "done a very poor job" running the state.